The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Integrated circuits (chips), including Systems-On-a-Chip (SoCs), are operated at high clock speeds to provide increased performance. In an application, a chip may not be controlled to provide maximum performance at all times, and therefore may not operate at the highest achievable clock speed at all times.
Operating at higher clock speeds can have substantial drawbacks. A chip's power consumption when operating at higher frequencies may be higher than when operating at lower frequencies even when the operating voltage is the same. Furthermore, operating at the higher frequency may require operating the chip at a higher operating voltage, which may further increase the chip's power consumption.
Higher power consumption produces higher temperatures on the chip. To prevent the chip temperatures from exceeding a design maximum, better packages and/or better heat sinks may be required, which increases the costs for a device including the chip.
Because of the increased power consumption and heat generated by operating at higher speeds, chips designed to operate at a high design frequency may not continue to operate reliably when the chips is continuously operated at the design frequency for an extended period of time.